The removal of select ions from process streams and waste streams is a problem whose solution is always sought after, especially so since recent regulations have mandated the removal of ions like chromate ion from waste streams in order to decrease this ion content to a maximum acceptable level of said ions in said effluent waste stream. One of the ways to capture these removable ions is to use ion exchange methodology with ion exchange resins in a fixed or fluidized bed. The advantage that a fluidized bed offers is that of greater rates of flowthrough and resistance to clogging by particulate impurities, but a disadvantage exists in that the fines, or small particles of the bed, are carried out of the fluidized bed thereby contaminating the effluent and losing expensive sorbent. These disadvantages can be overcome through permanent magnetization of the sorbent particles but resident magnetism in these particles causes flocculation to occur anywhere in the apparatus and its associated plumbing.